Paroled Robber Held In Holdup

A convicted bank robber released from prison in October was arrested in Miami Springs and charged with robbing a bank in Delray Beach last week, authorities said Tuesday.

The suspect, Ernest Gail Lail, 46, was arrested at 10:55 p.m. Monday and held in the Palm Beach County Jail after FBI agents pulled him over in his car on 57th Avenue and Northwest 36th Street, agent Paul Miller said. The arrest was made after agents followed Lail from the halfway house at 656 E. Drive, Miami Springs, where he was living.

Lail was charged with the Dec. 20 robbery of the Amerifirst Bank in the 1500 block of South Federal Highway, Delray Beach. Police said the suspect walked into the bank with a briefcase and told tellers it was filled with dynamite. He threatened to blow up the bank if tellers didn`t hand over an undetermined amount of cash, police said.

The suspect also waved a handgun at bank employees before fleeing with the money, police said. According to Delray Beach police Sgt. Ross Licata, the arrest was made with the help of a witness who saw Lail running from the bank and memorized the tag number on his car.

Delray Beach police and FBI agents then traced the tag number and staked out the halfway house, Licata said. Lail briefly attempted to elude agents in his 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, but eventually surrendered peacefully, Miller said.

A .25-caliber handgun that police think was used in the robbery was recovered in Lail`s car, police said.

Lail is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Ann Vitunac in West Palm Beach on Thursday. According to police, he has served two prison terms for bank robbery convictions.

Miller said Lail was convicted of bank robbery in 1968 and served 10 years in Atlanta Federal Prison and a federal prison camp at Maxwell Air Force base in Montgomery, Ala.